⇒ Read God Is an Englishman R F Delderfield 9780786717507 Books

God Is an Englishman R F Delderfield 9780786717507 Books

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God Is an Englishman R F Delderfield 9780786717507 Books

Delderfield remains one of my favourite writers but God is an Englishman disappointed.
The writing is superb as usual but the content of this book left me yawning for the most part. Eventually I gave up although I did read almost to the end.
It is the first book of a family saga and I definitely won't attempt the others in the trilogy.
Adam Swann is a new breed of Englishman who makes his mark in private enterprise through his innovative horse and carriage hauling business. This is during the period when rail was making itself felt through the villages and countryside of rural England and Swann manages to find his own niche and subsequent wealth.
It was interesting to read about this period but there is too much detail and a whole bevy of characters which at times becomes confusing.
To Serve Then All My Days is a brilliant tour de force by Delderfield and one I would highly recommend, especially if you thought this book was great.


Tags : God Is an Englishman [R. F. Delderfield] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <div>This bestselling novel set in the ruthless world of Victorian commerce follows the fortunes of Adam Swann,R. F. Delderfield,God Is an Englishman,Carroll & Graf,0786717505,VI-0786717505,20th Century English Novel And Short Story,FICTION General,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Fiction Literary,Historical - General,Literary,Modern fiction

God Is an Englishman R F Delderfield 9780786717507 Books Reviews

This is the first volume of an epic saga about a British entrepreneur who realizes that there is money to be made in horse drawn distribution in the middle of the 19th century despite the growth of the railway system. The story of how Adam Swan builds that business is fascinating and presented in elaborate detail. At the same time, the book deals with romantic topics but in a way that seems very old fashioned and censored. Lots of odd, symbolic language that somewhat detracts from the overall commercial theme of the book. Those parts make the book a little embarrassing for an old fashioned male reader to be caught with; somewhat like reading part of a Har___ novel from a bygone era. At times the book's treatment of women is patronizing although arguably it does show women in unusual, for the 1860s, management positions. For me, I wish the author had stuck to the story of the development of the enterprise and left the romantic parts to other authors. Mind all of it is very clean, nothing in this book that anyone could object to.
God is an Englishman is Victorian historical fiction at its best - I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the world changing developments in commerce and industry in England in the mid/late 19th Century. I have always been fascinated by tales of the Industrial Revolution when English entrepreneurs, inventors and innovators changed life from an a rural/agricultural system to a modern industrial society in a matter of generations.

After a military career, Adam Swann returns to England in 1858 with an intense ambition to build his fortune in the fast changing and extremely competitive world of Victorian commerce. Swann soon meets his soul-mate, Henrietta, the high-spirited daughter of a local mill owner and they set out to build a family business under the Swann name. Along the way they share challenges, setbacks and eventually an immense fortune.

As now, the secret of Swann's success is building an efficient and competitive business that is ahead of its time and is essential to the success of others. Swann sees that while railways are a fundamental part of the game-changing industrial revolution, they cannot always provide door to door delivery. He sets up an extensive and complex country-wide network of horse drawn transportation to take materials and goods between the railhead and factories up and down the country, sometimes on appalling roads and gradients.

Henrietta, as well as being a wife and mother to an ever increasing brood of small Swanns, is the financial wizard who helps Adam to succeed. While the business is essentially a family one, much of its success is due to finding the right staff in the right place and giving them every incentive to perform and develop the business.

This is a fascinating and outstanding novel about exciting times in economic and social development throughout Victorian England. The next novels in the series - - Theirs Was the Kingdom (Swann Family Saga) and Give Us This Day (God Is an Englishman) - - bring the younger Swanns into the business and they face the next challenges as the face of road freight transport changes from horse drawn to motorised delivery.

The Swann family saga is only one of several important English family sagas written by Delderfield, including The Horseman Riding By and To Serve Them All Our Days, both of which became popular BBC mini-series.

This is a beloved novel by one of my favourite authors. I first read this book (the first in the Swann family saga trilogy) in the UK the early 1970's when it was first published. I read it again with continued enjoyment over 30 years later and was delighted to see it featured recently as a Daily Deal so I can now keep a copy with me at all times.
Delderfield wrote about many English historical periods. God is an Englishman is in his earliest period, 1860 Victorian, and it is the first novel in the Swann saga. It wasn’t as compelling a read as the first novel in A Horseman Riding By which actually made me want to live in the early 1900 time period as I read it because of its intriguing descriptions of life then. I hope the rest of the Swann Saga will have more intriguing descriptions because it’s first book just felt flat and not at all like the many other exciting Delderfield books that I have read and immensely enjoyed. God Is An Englishman is such a great title; it deserved a great story to go along with it’s title. Still, this book is much better written than most competing authors books written in Delderfield’s lifespan.
Who would have thought that the history of the founding of a trucking company would be so interesting?

To be fair, since the events in this story take place between 1858 and 1865, the company we see at its beginning is actually a carting company, hauling goods around England, Scotland, and Wales in wagons of various descriptions instead of, or as a supplement to, transporting them by train. But this is only the first volume in a trilogy. I’m pretty sure that by the end of the saga the wagons will have become trucks.

In addition to the founding of a company, the story concerns the founding of a family. And the family in question is not limited to Adam Swann’s personal family. The many people who are key to the operations of his business are, in a way, a part of his family too, and their part in creating the business is also told along with Adam’s own.
Delderfield remains one of my favourite writers but God is an Englishman disappointed.
The writing is superb as usual but the content of this book left me yawning for the most part. Eventually I gave up although I did read almost to the end.
It is the first book of a family saga and I definitely won't attempt the others in the trilogy.
Adam Swann is a new breed of Englishman who makes his mark in private enterprise through his innovative horse and carriage hauling business. This is during the period when rail was making itself felt through the villages and countryside of rural England and Swann manages to find his own niche and subsequent wealth.
It was interesting to read about this period but there is too much detail and a whole bevy of characters which at times becomes confusing.
To Serve Then All My Days is a brilliant tour de force by Delderfield and one I would highly recommend, especially if you thought this book was great.